1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a point of sale (POS herein after) system and POS terminal device which executes change management during the purchase of goods and services. In addition, the present invention relates to a method for managing cash-on-hand information for such a POS terminal or a POS system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In retail stores using conventional POS systems, various types of cash management are performed. For example, the following operations are performed in such stores during business hours.
1) Preparing cash for change;
2) Inputting amount of cash for change at POS terminal;
3) Handling payment from customer, and inputting the amount of handled cash;
4) Handling change to customers;
5) Totaling a cash amount that should be in a drawer of a POS terminal;
6) Totaling a cash amount that is actually in the drawer;
7) Calculating discrepancies between cash which should be in the drawer and cash actually in the drawer;
8) Collecting exceeded cash in the drawer;
9) Receiving daily profit; and
10) Depositing profits to bank.
Stores need to prepare cash, particularly cash of small denominations, to be handed to customers as change at each POS terminal in the stores. Although it is possible to replenish change by cash received from customers, there are some cases where prepared change becomes insufficient during business hours, particularly with regard to certain denominations of currency. It is therefore necessary to perform appropriate change supplementation.
On the other hand, there are also some large denominations of currencies that will not be handed to customers as change. These bills must be withdrawn from circulation while the store is in operation.
In addition, at changes in personnel shifts, or at closing time, theoretical amount of cash that should be in a drawer and the actual amount of cash remaining in a drawer of each POS terminal will be compared. If any discrepancy between these amounts occurs, a cause of this discrepancy will be investigated.
In particular, conventionally, the probability for occurrence of the following problems is very high.
Firstly, it is necessary for stores to deposit money suitable for change into financial institutions beforehand. Cash prepared for change held by stores is not freely operable by the stores. Therefore, it is desirable for stores to reduce the amount of cash held for change as much as possible.
Secondly, work for preparing change at the bank is time-consuming. In particular for use as change, cash, especially coins, must be sorted by its type, and work must be performed such as organizing as per number of type. In recent years, financial institutions have been applying a charge for a preparation of change, as the preparation of change is time-consuming. This charge is generally a fixed proportion, for example a few percent of the amount handled. However, in stores where it is necessary to prepare several million yen in change each day, the charging fee paid over the year will also be in the millions of yen, creating a problem of greater burdens on the store.
Thirdly, the preparation of the change itself is a heavy labor.
To prepare cash for change, it is necessary for a store to get cash from a financial institution, such as bank. Assuming a store employee goes the financial institution and gets cash, a time in moving back and forth between the financial institution and the store will amount to at least several tens of minutes. As this period of time must also be considered as working time for employees, wages must be paid.
Now, consider an example of the costs needed in change preparation work for five stores, two employees are in charge of getting cash for each store, and they would spend 30 minutes going back and forth between the store and the financial institution. If employees are paid an hourly wage of 2,000 yen, and assuming the store operates for 300 days a year, an expense of 3 million yen is needed for five stores just for change preparation.
In addition, it is necessary to prepare cash received from a financial institution for each terminal device in each store prior to opening. Assume that this operation would also need two employees per store, and the work time to be 45 minutes. If the hourly wage for employees in each of the five stores is 1,500 yen, then 4 million yen will be needed just for cash preparation during the year.
Furthermore, the nature of a situation is such that not only change should be supplemented at the opening of the store, but must also be supplemented during the business hours as needed. In particular, small denominational currency tends to be handed out to customers as change more often than it is taken in from customers. As the probability of these coins or bills becoming insufficient during business is extremely high, there are cases where change must be supplemented several times a day.
On the other hand, certain kinds of bills, for example 10,000-yen bill, will be accepted from customers, but will not be used for change, as it is the largest bill. Therefore, these bills will accumulate in a drawer during transactions. As well as for security reason, it is necessary to withdraw such bills from circulation when appropriate during business hours.
In this way the supplementing and withdrawal from circulation of cash during business hours is irksome.
Further, after business hours, cash in the store, that is to say all of the earnings, will be taken to a financial institution. This situation requires the same manpower as obtaining cash for change.
Finally, the timing of change supplementation and removal of cash from circulation is difficult to determine.
If it is not possible to ascertain a cash situation at each POS terminal on a real time basis, then it is not possible to determine which POS terminal needs a change supplement. Further, it is hard to determine what sort of and how much bill or coin needs to be supplemented, or whether large denomination bills need to be taken out of circulation. Therefore, it is very probable that change supplements will not come in time, or conversely that unneeded supplemental work will occur.